Native English speakers often find themselves in the situation of being responsible to teach English as a Second Language with little or no training in teaching. These materials are intended to help ESL teachers in primary school classrooms.

A Place to Start

This is not a comprehensive teacher training course, and the lessons plans are not definite or set in stone. They are intended only to give a starting point and a few ideas to help you design your own lesson plans.

Rich Resources

The Internet is amazingly rich in resources for the ESL teacher, so much so that it can be somewhat overwhelming. On the other hand, it is great for idea-generating: when you are developing a lesson plan, google ESL and your topic, and you'll have lots of ideas to work with.

Learning Curve

To me two of the most important things in teaching are preparation and flexibility: you need to be prepared, and you need to be flexible enough to forget everything you've prepared.

These activities may prove helpful if you have to teach "special" English classes - ie. extra English lessons for those who want to learn more than is required by the curriculum.

Working in teams, choose (a country) and create a poster about (a country) using pictures (drawn or photocopied) and words/ sentences that occurs to you when you think of that (country). Write them down with accompanying pictures and present the poster to the class. Be creative!

Choose a book to read from a selection. Look up words you do not understand. Take the book home. After practising for a week, read the book aloud to the class. Be aware of your pronunciation. You must be able to explain/translate if a student in the class does not understand a sentence or a word.

Find the meaning of the words (found in a specific book) in the vocabulary list in the English dictionary. Listen to this book being read out aloud. In sentences, answer simple questions about each chapter.

Imagine you have magic powers. What would it be? Why? Write it down in sentences, get it checked, and present your thoughts to the class.

Working in teams, imagine you own a shop. What kind of shop is it? What would you sell? Make a poster of your shop using pictures and words. Present the poster to the class.

Think of your favorite sport. Now, compare yourself to one of your favorite athletes in that sport. Write about how you look different, who would win if you had to play each other, and why that person is one of your favorite athletes.

Think of your ideal vacation. What is it? Where would you go? Write a short essay on your ideal vacation. Submit it for grammar and spelling checks. Practise saying it out loud then present to class.